Why Bob Katter chose to egg the The Beatles

Bob Katter has reflected on why he egged The Beatles, admitting recently on television that he did not have “anything better to do” at the time.

The Queensland politician was reminiscing about the moment the Fab Four toured Australia in 1964, when a university-aged Katter, his friend and thousands of screaming fans waited for the band to disembark their plane.

Speaking to the Today show, Katter said his official response at the time was that he was reacting to the hysteria of the band.

“The next day when I did international interviews – this just shows I had the makings of a politician – I said it was an intellectual reaction against Beatlemania,” he said.

“Well, if I wanted to get a strict truth, it was, ‘you got anything better to do?'”

He admitted it was a friend’s idea to prank the band and said he mistakenly thought his friend was going to egg his car, which was a Volkswagen Type 1 ‘Beetle’.

“A bloke called Gary Williams kicked my door open at 2am in the morning and said, get your gear on, we’re going to egg The Beatles,” Katter recalled.

“And I said – I had a Beetle motorcar, and I got up and I was going to fight him, you know, because of it and, he said, not that, you idiot.”

Katter and his friend were not the only ones amused by their antics. He claimed the police were laughing too hard to keep hold of him as they took him toward the wagon, allowing him to escape into the bush.

This would not be the last time that the colourful Queenslander would make headlines.

He recently garnered attention for his bold stance against the growing trend toward the rise of a cashless society, refusing to stand down after his $50 note was rejected at a cafe in Parliament House.

Katter was left fuming after a staff member at the Parliament House cafe refused to accept his cash for lunch. Undeterred, he promptly demanded the manager review the legalities of such a refusal, insisting that it was illegal not to accept cash as it is considered legal tender.

Speaking to Sky News Australia in February Katter recounted the confrontation, stressing the broader issues at stake.

“If you have a cashless society, you’re in big trouble,

“You’re not able to buy a loaf of bread without permission from the bank, it is bad enough now but it will be infinitely worse,” he said.